Chemonie Plantation

Chemonie Plantation was a historic agricultural estate in northern Leon County, Florida, rather than a modern consumer or corporate brand. The plantation occupied approximately 1,840 acres and was established by Hector Braden. Its land was divided between two tracts: one extending between Centerville Road and the Monticello Road area, and another located south and slightly east near the Leon County–Jefferson County boundary. The estate was adjacent to Evergreen Hills Plantation and Tuscawilla Plantation. During the antebellum period, Chemonie was principally a cotton-producing plantation that depended on the forced labor of enslaved African Americans. The 1860 agricultural census recorded 64 enslaved people working there. The property included both cultivated and uncultivated acreage and produced cotton and corn. Its economic history therefore belongs to the plantation system of the American South, in which agricultural wealth was built through the dispossession and coerced labor of enslaved people. George Noble Jones became associated with Chemonie after marrying Mary Savage Nuttall in 1840 and purchasing the plantation, together with the Nuttall family's El Destino Plantation. Jones came from a wealthy colonial Georgia family and maintained a residence at Kingscote Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, where he spent summers before the Civil War. Records associated with Jones include plantation birth and death entries, clothing distributions, family-group lists, and other documentation concerning enslaved people at Chemonie and related properties. By the mid-twentieth century, the estate had changed substantially in use and ownership. Around 1945, David S. Ingalls, a director of Pan Am World Airways and publisher associated with the Cincinnati Times-Star, purchased Chemonie with Robert Livingston Ireland Jr., an executive of the M. A. Hanna Company. Their joint Ireland-Ingalls ownership treated the property as a quail-hunting plantation. The estate also shared roughly 1,000 acres devoted to corn production. This later phase reflects the transformation of some former cotton plantations in the Florida and Georgia region into private sporting properties and agricultural holdings. The available historical material does not establish Chemonie Plantation as an active commercial brand, an incorporated business, or a currently operating public attraction. Its significance is primarily historical and geographical: it documents the plantation economy, slavery, landholding patterns, agricultural production, and the later conversion of plantation landscapes into hunting estates. The present ownership, operational status, and public accessibility of the property are not established by the supplied sources.

Chemonie Plantation was an extensive agricultural estate in northern Leon County, Florida. Historical descriptions place it on two separate tracts: the larger tract lay between Centerville Road and the Monticello Road area, while the second was situated farther south and slightly east near the Leon County–Jefferson County line. The property stood within a regional plantation landscape and was identified as adjacent to Evergreen Hills Plantation and Tuscawilla Plantation. The plantation was established by Hector Braden. In the nineteenth century, its economy was based primarily on cotton, supported by the forced labor of enslaved African Americans. The 1860 Leon County agricultural census identified 1,840 acres associated with the plantation, including improved and unimproved land, and recorded 64 enslaved people. It also documented agricultural output including corn and cotton. These records place Chemonie within the antebellum plantation economy of North Florida, where large estates generated wealth through cash-crop agriculture and the legal system of slavery. George Noble Jones became an important later owner. Born in 1811 into a prominent Georgia family, Jones married Mary Savage Nuttall in 1840 and acquired Chemonie as well as the Nuttall family's El Destino Plantation. Jones was connected to a wealthy coastal Southern network and spent summers at Kingscote Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, before the Civil War. Documents attributed to Jones preserve information about life at Chemonie, including records of births and deaths and lists concerning clothing issued to enslaved people. Other surviving records organize enslaved people into family groups and document transactions involving enslaved persons, offering evidence of the human consequences of the plantation system. The property entered a different phase during the twentieth century. Around 1945, David S. Ingalls and Robert Livingston Ireland Jr. acquired Chemonie as part of a joint ownership arrangement. Ingalls was associated with Pan Am World Airways and the Cincinnati Times-Star, while Ireland was an executive of the M. A. Hanna Company, a major coal-related business. Under the Ireland-Ingalls ownership, Chemonie was operated as a quail-hunting plantation. The property also shared approximately 1,000 acres used for corn production, illustrating the shift from the nineteenth-century cotton economy toward a combination of agricultural and recreational land use. The supplied references do not document a later corporate structure, public tourism operation, current owner, or confirmed present-day status. Chemonie is therefore best understood as a historic place and former plantation estate rather than as a conventional active brand. Its historical importance arises from its connections to cotton cultivation, slavery, North Florida landholding, documentary records of enslaved people, and the later conversion of former plantation land into a private sporting property.

• 1945

  Ireland-Ingalls ownership begins

  [1]Chemonie Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  David S. Ingalls and Robert Livingston Ireland Jr. acquired the property through a joint ownership arrangement.

• 1945

  Conversion to a quail-hunting plantation

  [1]Chemonie Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Under its new owners, Chemonie became associated with quail hunting while retaining substantial acreage used for corn production.

• 1860

  Antebellum agricultural census record

  [1]Chemonie Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The Leon County agricultural census recorded Chemonie as a large cotton-producing estate employing 64 enslaved people and also producing corn.

• 1840

  George Noble Jones acquires Chemonie

  [1]Chemonie Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  After marrying Mary Savage Nuttall, George Noble Jones purchased Chemonie Plantation along with the Nuttall family's El Destino Plantation.

• Establishment of Chemonie Plantation

  [1]Chemonie Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Hector Braden established the plantation in northern Leon County, Florida, on two tracts of land near the Centerville Road, Monticello Road, and Leon County–Jefferson County areas.

A historic agricultural plantation and later private sporting estate, not a contemporary retail or consumer brand.

• Agricultural commodity

  Cotton

  Cotton was the plantation's principal antebellum cash crop. Its production depended on the forced labor of enslaved people and formed part of the broader cotton economy of North Florida before the Civil War. The 1860 agricultural census recorded cotton output at Chemonie, although the supplied material does not establish a branded product, mill, or downstream commercial operation.

• Agricultural commodity

  Corn

  Corn was cultivated alongside cotton during the plantation's nineteenth-century agricultural period. Later, under the Ireland-Ingalls ownership, approximately 1,000 acres associated with Chemonie were also used for corn production. The available sources describe farming activity rather than a consumer-facing corn brand or packaged product.

• Sporting-land use · 1945

  Quail hunting

  In the mid-twentieth century, Chemonie was described as a quail-hunting plantation. This represented a change in the estate's principal identity from an antebellum cotton plantation toward a private recreational and sporting property. The supplied sources do not establish whether hunting was commercially offered to the public.

• Enslaved labor and plantation ownership

  Chemonie Plantation was a forced-labor agricultural estate. Historical records identify enslaved people working the property and document aspects of their lives, including family groupings, births, deaths, clothing distributions, and sales. This is a central historical issue associated with the site and should be understood in the context of American slavery rather than as a modern corporate scandal.

  Source

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• 1945

  Shift toward sporting-estate useStrategy

  Background

  After the property was purchased by David S. Ingalls and Robert Livingston Ireland Jr., its role changed from the historic cotton plantation model.

  Action taken

  The owners developed Chemonie as a quail-hunting plantation while retaining substantial corn acreage.

  Aftermath

  The estate became associated with private sporting use and diversified agricultural land management.

  Source

• 1840

  Acquisition by George Noble JonesOther

  Background

  Following his marriage to Mary Savage Nuttall, George Noble Jones acquired Chemonie and the related El Destino Plantation.

  Action taken

  Jones assumed ownership of the plantation within a larger portfolio of Southern agricultural estates.

  Aftermath

  Chemonie remained part of a plantation system whose records document cotton production and the forced labor of enslaved people.

  Source

1. 1Chemonie Plantationen.wikipedia.org